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Self-organizing floral pigmentation patterns

2020; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 367; Issue: 6483 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.367.6483.1208-g

1095-9203

Pamela J. Hines,

Plant Reproductive Biology

Plant Science Petals of Mimulus flowers are decorated with anthocyanin spots in patterns that cue pollinators. Ding et al. show how, following the rules of a reaction-diffusion system, a self-activating transcription factor called NECTAR GUIDE ANTHOCYANIN (NEGAN) interacts with a mobile repressor to organize pigment patterns on flower petals. Among the genes regulated by NEGAN is RED TONGUE ( RTO ), which encodes a transcriptional repressor. RTO is transcribed in anthocyanin spot cells, but the RTO protein moves to adjacent cells, where it limits anthocyanin production. Model simulations explored how NEGAN and RTO together construct a variety of pigmentation patterns on the flower petals, which in turn affect bumble bee visitations. Curr. Biol. 10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.067 (2020).